Skit

After my post yesterday on holiday books , my friend Jeff reminded me of a classic Seinfeld skit about coffee table books . It features an invention by Kramer, so you know the result will be hilarious. And it includes guest spots by Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford for a little extra silliness. Enjoy. (The post probably triggered the bizarre piece of junk email as well. I received it this morning: "Am Mr Robert Smith I would like to place an order of (Coffee Tables)

It's been nearly 12 years since Ray Lewis played in his only other Super Bowl, but he is still almost as big as the game. There are multiple storylines here - the Harbaugh brothers, the two young guns at quarterback, San Francisco returning to glory - but none is bigger than Lewis' retirement. The national and international media will descend upon Lewis this morning, and there will be the usual questions about his return from injury, stopping the Pistol offense and how his pending retirement has affected the team.

GIRL SCOUT Troop 921 was host of the annual Triadelphia Ridge/Clarksville Cluster's Bridging ceremony, held May 30 at Clarksville Elementary School. Seventy-seven girls in the cluster moved up to the next level of Girl Scouting. Led by Faith Dillman of Highland and Kathy Deibler of Clarksville, the sixth-grade girls bridged from Juniors to Cadettes. Some of the girls, who attend different middle schools, have been in Scouting together since they were in kindergarten. The ceremony opened with the traditional flag ceremony, followed by entertainment.

After my post yesterday on holiday books , my friend Jeff reminded me of a classic Seinfeld skit about coffee table books . It features an invention by Kramer, so you know the result will be hilarious. And it includes guest spots by Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford for a little extra silliness. Enjoy. (The post probably triggered the bizarre piece of junk email as well. I received it this morning: "Am Mr Robert Smith I would like to place an order of (Coffee Tables)

Here's a question: When is it a good idea to turn a three-minute "Saturday Night Live" skit into a full-length feature film? Judging from "The Ladies Man," the answer is: Never. You would think the SNL crew would know better, after box-office duds like last year's "Superstar" and 1998's "A Night at the Roxbury." But with "The Ladies Man," yet another funny SNL skit has made a disastrous transition to the big screen, with the running joke of Tim Meadows' suave lover-wannabe persona stretched almost as thin as the movie's far-fetched plot.

In "The Prozac in Pandora's Box," the box contains more of a smorgasbord than merely pharmaceuticals. This cleverly titled and stylishly designed production at the Theatre Project is basically a variety show consisting of a half dozen skits on subjects ranging from Chernobyl to mythology.Written by Laura Amlie, a student in Towson State University's graduate theater program, the show began as that program's first student production. And, parts of it have the earmarks of a collegiate effort, kind of like a graduate school version of "Saturday Night Live."

The mother was hysterical. She had just found a box of condoms in her teen-age son's bedroom."A box of condoms!" the mother screamed. "What are you doing with a box of condoms in your room?""I thought if I wanted to do it one day, I wanted to be prepared for it," he replied.Premarital sex is wrong and goes against the family's religious beliefs, his mother said.The two froze -- amid applause from the audience.The confrontation wasn't real. The pair were members of Reality Check, an improvisational acting troupe composed of county high school students who perform thought-provoking skits on teen-age issues.

If you thought Ernest Hemingway's great American tale "The Old Man and the Sea" was simply about an old man trying to catch a fish, the children at Georgetown East Elementary School have news for you."It's about an old man trying to reach his impossible dream," sai11-year-old Justin Arnold.Justin and six of his classmates read or listened to the classic tale to find the theme and create an analogous skit for Odyssey of the Mind, a competition sponsored by a national nonprofit organization with the same name.

Alex Weber memorized her lines so earnestly for a skit on how to handle bullies that even in rehearsal she didn't need a prompt. Her performance at Lutherville Elementary School the other day was flawless. It went like this: As she innocently walked along the stage, a stack of R.L. Stine books under her arm, a girl came up from behind, knocked the books to the floor and teased her about being brainy. Alex didn't flinch. She didn't stoop to pick up the books. Instead the 10-year- old turned to the bully and said calmly: "Hey, I hear you're playing in the spring band concert.

Shana Alexander, 79, a trailblazing journalist whose verbal skirmishes with conservative James J. Kilpatrick on CBS' 60 Minutes were spoofed in a Saturday Night Live skit, died of cancer Thursday in Hermosa Beach, Calif. She wrote for magazines including Newsweek and National Geographic and was the first female staff writer employed by Life magazine. She was also the first female editor at McCall's magazine in nearly half a century.

J oe DiPietro's and Jimmy Roberts' "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," now playing at Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia, deals with universal questions about searching for and finding love, only to discover flaws in our ideal mate that we need to change fast. This light look at relationships, from first date to modern courtship to marriage and beyond, is told in a series of 18 unrelated vignettes. These largely independent segments are tied together by Roberts' music and DiPietro's lyrics.

The governor of New York was not amused A Saturday Night Live skit portraying New York's blind governor as a bumbling leader didn't get a laugh from the man himself, Gov. David A. Paterson. Paterson's office said the skit ridiculed people with physical disabilities and implied that disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities. "The governor is sure that Saturday Night Live, with all of its talent, can find a way to be funny without being offensive," Paterson spokesman Errol Cockfield said in a statement.

The premiere of the 34th season of Saturday Night Live was one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the TV year. And, for the most part, the production lived up to the hype. Much of the buzz came from having Baltimore's Michael Phelps, the eight-time gold medal winner at the summer Olympics, as host. Phelps made his acting debut in eight sketches - a demanding load for any comedy rookie - and did OK until losing his concentration in the very last sketch of the night, a spoof of his high-calorie diet.

"With this offense, I have to remember all these plays we have going into the week, and then trying to remember some kind of skit out there that I'm going to do after I have scored, that's way too much." Torry Holt St. Louis Rams receiver, on elaborate touchdown celebrations "You have to understand this about Albert: He's impossible to pitch to. Try to do something, and he adjusts. He's so smart. I don't think any hitters have no weaknesses. But he's close." Pedro Martinez New York Mets pitcher, on facing the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols

Just in time for Independence Day, the Maryland Ensemble Theatre has revived Democracy: A Work in Progress, a show that the Frederick-based company debuted last fall as a prelude to the presidential election. Created collaboratively, then scripted by Don Thompson and directed and designed by Tad Janes, Democracy - at Johns Hopkins University's Mattin Center - uses a series of skits, images, movement and projections to offer a selective survey of democracy from the time of the ancient Greeks onward.

Shana Alexander, 79, a trailblazing journalist whose verbal skirmishes with conservative James J. Kilpatrick on CBS' 60 Minutes were spoofed in a Saturday Night Live skit, died of cancer Thursday in Hermosa Beach, Calif. She wrote for magazines including Newsweek and National Geographic and was the first female staff writer employed by Life magazine. She was also the first female editor at McCall's magazine in nearly half a century.

"With this offense, I have to remember all these plays we have going into the week, and then trying to remember some kind of skit out there that I'm going to do after I have scored, that's way too much." Torry Holt St. Louis Rams receiver, on elaborate touchdown celebrations "You have to understand this about Albert: He's impossible to pitch to. Try to do something, and he adjusts. He's so smart. I don't think any hitters have no weaknesses. But he's close." Pedro Martinez New York Mets pitcher, on facing the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols

Improv is one of the more delicate forms of comedy. It is difficult to rehearse and, in the wrong hands, it can be as flat as an ironing board. The idea is fairly simple. Actors, or members of an improv troupe, think up various skits. The audience supplies key ingredients for the skit -- maybe the location, the occupations of the characters, or an odd word that must be incorporated in the dialogue. The actors then perform an unrehearsed skit woven around audience suggestions. The humor enters as the actors come up with clever ways to execute the skit, or as they fail miserably trying.

Improv is one of the more delicate forms of comedy. It is difficult to rehearse and, in the wrong hands, it can be as flat as an ironing board. The idea is fairly simple. Actors, or members of an improv troupe, think up various skits. The audience supplies key ingredients for the skit -- maybe the location, the occupations of the characters, or an odd word that must be incorporated in the dialogue. The actors then perform an unrehearsed skit woven around audience suggestions. The humor enters as the actors come up with clever ways to execute the skit, or as they fail miserably trying.

Clutching felt-tip markers, the pupils reflected for a few moments before silently approaching the oversized sheet of paper taped to the wall to jot down solutions to the question: "What can we do to help the people at our school to accept, respect and embrace each other's similarities and differences?" Within minutes, about a dozen pupils filled the paper with messages scrawled in a rainbow of colors. Their responses ranged from simple courtesies to bolder acts of selflessness. "Eat lunch with them," Katlyn Starner, 11, a sixth-grader at Westminster Middle School, wrote.